Blind Fall [Audio CD]

Christopher Rice (Author), Frederick Weller (Narrator)

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: RecordedBooks (2007)
• ISBN-10: 1436118743
• ISBN-13: 978-1436118743
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Christopher Rice is the son of author Anne Rice and the late poet Stan Rice. He lives in Los Angeles. The Moonlit Earth is his fifth novel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting suspense novel with a tinge of gay culture, February 26, 2008

By 

David W. Nicholas (Van Nuys, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blind Fall: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've never read any of Anne Rice's books. I didn't even know Christopher Rice was her son until my wife told me, after I'd started the book. I would guess she's a good writer though, because her son's pretty polished, and this offering is very good, to say the least.

Our hero, the main character, is John Houck, a Marine just back from Iraq and out of the Corps after a decade, wracked by guilt over a misstep that cost one of his comrades an eye, and almost cost the guy his life. Houck decides to look him up and apologize, and instead walks in on the aftermath of his murder. He pursues someone who's running away, but that individual turns out to be the dead guy's gay lover, and of course this causes Houck to undergo all sorts of soul-searching, because he never realized his friend was gay.

This is a reasonably good mystery, and a very interesting suspense novel. Once you get past the whodunit aspect of things (which is revealed rather quickly) the book has more to do with the acceptance of gays in modern society, and how they interact with the rest of us. That's interesting, and it's well-done.

I enjoyed this book a great deal, and would recommend it to anyone.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth a read, but don't race to the store for it, June 13, 2008

By 

Baltimore Boy79 (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blind Fall: A Novel (Hardcover)

I discovered Christopher Rice's work early on as I was a fan of his mother's. I've read all four of his books and enjoyed each of them. His first book, A Density of Souls, was one of his best work, along with Light Before Day. My only major complaint with his novels, to include this one, is that several times in each book the characters make decisions or take paths that stretch the grounds of believeability. While this does lead to more dramatic encounters and conflicts, I sometimes have to suspend the little voice inside saying "Who would actually do this in real life?" in order to get through the sections. But then again, this is fiction, right? Overall, I would recommend this book, but if you haven't read any of his work before and can only pick one, his first and third novels were much better.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Semper Fi, Christopher Rice, March 10, 2008

By 

Rich Merritt (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blind Fall: A Novel (Hardcover)

Few writers can compel a reader forward as breathlessly as Christopher Rice, while along the way showing (through the characters' actions) a principle or statement about society. Often either the action suffers from didacticism or the message is lost in the action. Not here - action and meaning work seamlessly together in a rich tale.

The main character is driven by a sense of loyalty - sometimes recklessly - but he also suffers from problems that are epidemic in American culture: Homophobia and an ideal of hypermasculinity that is ultimately unattainable; and beliefs that he must be a protector and that he owes penitence for his past failures in this regard. He must overcome these flaws and feelings of inadequacy and by the end he does, in a credible manner.

The relationships are also poignant. Love between men can be a brotherly platonic sort of love, the kind that allows them to survive in combat, or it can be a marital and sexual love that allows them to survive a lifetime together. Rice demonstrates both kinds of love and how men who feel one can come to understand the other. This is difficult territory in American literature and Rice is brave to tackle it, and he succeeds masterfully.

Semper Fi, Christopher!
Rich Merritt
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